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More Claims of T-Mobile-Compatible iPhone

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Earlier this week, Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson noted that he had been informed by a "T-Mobile manager" that the carrier would begin offering the iPhone 3GS (but not the iPhone 4) by the end of this year. The claim was met with widespread skepticism, in part because, unlike AT&T and the iPhone's other carriers around the world, T-Mobile's 3G network operates within the 1700 MHz spectrum that is apparently not supported by the iPhone.

But more claims of a 1700 MHz-compatible iPhone surfaced today from Canadian firm Quebecor, which is launching mobile service under its Vidéotron brand, which will use the frequency band for its network. According to a company executive vice president, an announcement about a compatible iPhone coming to the carrier should occur "in the coming months".
Perhaps the juiciest thing to come out of the launch today, though, happened during the Q&A session of the launch press conference, where one of the company's executive vice presidents apparently noted that Apple is in the process of manufacturing an AWS-compliant iPhone and that we should "expect an announcement in the coming months" regarding Vidéotron's launch. That certainly lends credence to recent rumors that T-Mobile USA is preparing to offer the iPhone -- like Vidéotron, it uses AWS 3G -- but just as with the perpetual Verizon rumors, we're going to hold off on calling this one gold until we see the units on a store shelf.
Click to expand...
Like Engadget, we continue to view these rumors with some skepticism, as claims of the iPhone coming to various carriers have been rampant for quite some time with no results, and there have been no rumors coming from Apple's Asian suppliers regarding a tweaked manufacturing process that would be required for the hardware.

Article Link: More Claims of T-Mobile-Compatible iPhone
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/09/10/more-claims-of-t-mobile-compatible-iphone/
rdowns

rdowns

macrumors Penryn
Jul 11, 2003
27,397
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Why waste time, money and resources re-tooling a model that's last year's technology?
 
samh004

samh004

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Mar 1, 2004
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Wirelessly posted (iPod touch: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Surely the best idea would be to fit every mobile system into the latest product, including CDMA and all that, but I guess with Apple's desire to be thinnest all the time that idea is going to be tricky.

Likewise I can't see the point in changing the 3Gs, it's not got a terribly good selling point compared to the 4.
 
I

Icedog

macrumors member
Nov 7, 2003
82
0
rdowns said:
Why waste time, money and resources re-tooling a model that's last year's technology?
Click to expand...

The only reason I can think of why they would modify the 3GS and not the 4 would be some sort of loophole or concession with the contract with AT&T allowing them to do so.
 
B

blairwillis

macrumors regular
Jul 24, 2005
203
4
Icedog said:
The only reason I can think of why they would modify the 3GS and not the 4 would be some sort of loophole or concession with the contract with AT&T allowing them to do so.
Click to expand...

This makes a lot of sense. Hadn't thought of that.

And what this really means is if the 3GS comes to T-Mobile, then the 4 will follow some time later.

The 3GS goes in at a "can't-say-no" price point ($49? $29? $1?) and suddenly Apple converts a ton of T-Mobile'rs to the cult. Then hit them up for another $199/$299/$399 a year later, with an "early-upgrade" offer on an iPhone 4 or 5.

Naysayers just don't "get it": Apple wants more phones in more hands. They've milked the AT&T deal for what it was worth. Time to sell more phones.
 
C

commander.data

macrumors 65816
Nov 10, 2006
1,057
183
I hope this find it's way to WIND Mobile too, which is licensed to use AWS in Canada outside of Quebec.

The choice of iPhone 3GS as a launch device is strange and as others have mentioned is probably some contractual thing with existing carriers. Hopefully it's only temporary as Apple transitions to broadening their cell phone spectrum support and T-Mobile, Videotron, and others aren't permanently stuck one generation behind. It would be good if these AWS iPhone 3GS models have a 16GB option too say at $149 or lower.
 
0

00146CB58122

macrumors newbie
Jul 17, 2009
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The 3GS was referring to the previous rumour. I can't see any mention of a 3GS referring to this Canadian rumour.
 
Q

quinney

macrumors member
Jul 22, 2007
55
0
The big announcement will be that the blabbermouth VP at Videotron blew the iPhone deal by flapping his lips too early.
 
QCassidy352

QCassidy352

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"Naysayers just don't "get it": Apple wants more phones in more hands. They've milked the AT&T deal for what it was worth. Time to sell more phones."

You base that on what, other than wishful thinking?

I do believe t-mo over vzn.
 
m3coolpix

m3coolpix

macrumors 6502a
Dec 24, 2007
721
3
Let 'em put the iPhone on Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint.....every network.

More bandwidth freed up on AT&T! :D

Then we'd get the 'iPhone is faster on our network' commercials though....:mad:
 
L

leshkanyc

macrumors newbie
Jul 2, 2009
7
0
T-Mobile is next

Blah blah blah... AT&T is out of the game, everybody else welcome... We can even build you a Nextel iPhone, ummm but it will not have internet and last only 4 hours on a single charge...but you'll be able to call :)

Just like i have predicted a few months ago - iPhone will come to T-Mobile
 
Neodym

Neodym

macrumors 68020
Jul 5, 2002
2,433
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Title is confusing

Sorry for nitpicking, but the title is misleading. While this is probably clear to american people (because T-Mobile is running on 1700 MHz in the US), it is irritating elsewhere, as the iPhone is already "T-Mobile-compatible" since day 1 - i'm using it with T-Mobile here (on the 900MHz band).

A better title (imho) would have been "More Claims of 1700MHz-compatible iPhone" or at least "More Claims of T-Mobile-USA-compatible iPhone" - that would've been better and more clearly.

And with direct reference to the 1700 MHz spectrum it would have provided more information to non-US people who might be waiting for the iPhone to operate in the 1700MHz band.

/Rant over
 
Powerbooky

Powerbooky

macrumors demi-god
Mar 15, 2008
589
496
Europe
If T-Mobile US is just like T-Mobile here in west-EU, than be prepared for lots of dropped calls/connections. Even in low dense residential areas.

Apple should drop the SIM-lock and allow EVERY network. No more provider lock.
 
T

Thomas Harte

macrumors 6502
Nov 30, 2005
400
4
Neodym said:
Sorry for nitpicking, but the title is misleading. While this is probably clear to american people (because T-Mobile is running on 1700 MHz in the US), it is irritating elsewhere, as the iPhone is already "T-Mobile-compatible" since day 1 - i'm using it with T-Mobile here (on the 900MHz band).

A better title (imho) would have been "More Claims of 1700MHz-compatible iPhone" or at least "More Claims of T-Mobile-USA-compatible iPhone" - that would've been better and more clearly.

And with direct reference to the 1700 MHz spectrum it would have provided more information to non-US people who might be waiting for the iPhone to operate in the 1700MHz band.

/Rant over
Click to expand...

I agree with this.
 
SockRolid

SockRolid

macrumors 68000
Jan 5, 2010
1,560
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Almost Rock Solid
Maybe AT&T will buy T-Mobile?

What he said:

... he had been informed by a "T-Mobile manager" that the carrier would begin offering the iPhone 3GS (but not the iPhone 4) by the end of this year. ...
Click to expand...

Possibly what he meant:

"The carrier would begin offering the iPhone 3GS (but not the iPhone 4) by the end of this year because AT&T will be buying them. AT&T will exclusively sell the iPhone 4 and each year's current iPhone model. And AT&T's new T-Mobile division will become the low-end cheapskate network and will sell only the previous low-end model iPhones."

Just a thought.
 
DakotaGuy

DakotaGuy

macrumors 601
Jan 14, 2002
4,226
3,791
South Dakota, USA
SockRolid said:
What he said:

Possibly what he meant:

"The carrier would begin offering the iPhone 3GS (but not the iPhone 4) by the end of this year because AT&T will be buying them. AT&T will exclusively sell the iPhone 4 and each year's current iPhone model. And AT&T's new T-Mobile division will become the low-end cheapskate network and will sell only the previous low-end model iPhones."

Just a thought.
Click to expand...

If AT&T buys T-Mobile expect Verizon to go after Sprint.
 
Rajani Isa

Rajani Isa

macrumors 65816
Jun 8, 2010
1,161
72
Rogue Valley, Oregon
Powerbooky said:
If T-Mobile US is just like T-Mobile here in west-EU, than be prepared for lots of dropped calls/connections. Even in low dense residential areas.

Apple should drop the SIM-lock and allow EVERY network. No more provider lock.
Click to expand...

Would not matter in the USA. Only T-Mobile, IIRC, works even on a half-compatible GSM band - the iPhone simply won't work for our other providers.
 
chatfan

chatfan

macrumors regular
Nov 2, 2006
103
0
in mah cribb yo
My 3G iPhone worked fine on T-mobile allover Europe and in the US, so the new iPhone should work just as well. Are people now going to import unlocked phones from Europe? hurray for progress :eek:
 
SilvorX

SilvorX

macrumors 68000
May 24, 2002
1,701
0
'Toba, Canada
quinney said:
The big announcement will be that the blabbermouth VP at Videotron blew the iPhone deal by flapping his lips too early.
Click to expand...

Just like how the president of SaskTel announcing that there will be an "amazing new iPhone" coming out in June and that they will be selling it. Sasktel's new network has already been up for a month, and no sign of iPhone on their product line (or anytime soon). Wonder why?! (well it could be just because of stock issues, or it could be Steve was p/o'ed)
 
P

poematik14

macrumors member
Jan 29, 2009
63
0
As a t mobile customer, and knowing a lot of people on t mobile who would get an iPhone the SECOND it comes out for us, this is very, very relevant to our interests.

I am so sick of my windows phone, and although t mobile has an impressive android selection, they dont have the amazing apps Apple's does. I have always wanted an iPhone but ATT is a terrible company.
 
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